Doubts are already being raised about the group’s prospects
for reaching a bipartisan compromise on the national debt before
next year’s elections. The choices from both parties include
some “land mines,” said Robert Bixby, head of the Concord
Coalition, an Arlington, Virginia-based group that advocates for
a balanced budget.

‘Alarm Bells’

Murray, of Washington state, will cause “certain alarm
bells to go off” because she is in charge of her party’s
principal fundraising committee for senators seeking re-
election, Bixby said. Toomey, of Pennsylvania, and Hensarling,
of Texas, are vocal anti-tax advocates, and all six Republican
appointees have signed a pledge against voting to raise taxes.
Upton’s panel has taken the lead on investigating President
Barack Obama’s agenda, including the health-care law.

“This is not auspicious for a grand bargain,” Bixby said.

Murray and Hensarling will be co-leaders of the committee.

The American public is discouraged about the prospects
government can fix the nation’s economic problems, according to
a new Washington Post poll. Almost three-fourths of those
responding said they have little or no confidence in the
nation’s leaders to repair the economy and almost eight in 10
say they are dissatisfied with the way the political system is
working, the Post poll shows.

The panel’s work has taken on greater urgency since
Standard & Poor’s on Aug. 5 lowered the U.S.’s AAA credit rating
for the first time, saying lawmakers weren’t doing enough to
reduce record deficits by raising taxes or cutting spending. The
so-called super committee will be the central focus of political
and lobbying activity in Washington for the next four months, as
industries try to protect their interests.

Mounting Debt

Unless the panel pushes through a deficit-reduction package
by year’s end, $1.2 trillion in automatic, across-the-board
spending cuts will be triggered over a decade, starting in 2013,
equally targeting defense and non-defense programs. The 12 panel
members need a simple majority to make a recommendation.

Part of the House Democratic leadership, Van Hollen, 52,
has fought to preserve government spending programs such as
Medicare. He is close to Pelosi and ran the party’s fundraising
arm for U.S. representatives for four years, helping expand the
Democratic majority in 2008.

Lawyers and law firms, often including lobbyists, have been
the biggest bloc of donors to Van Hollen during his career,
according to Washington’s Center for Responsive Politics, which
tracks campaign-finance data. Retired people and those involved
in real estate come next.

Social Security

Becerra, 53, vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus,
has worked to preserve spending for Social Security and
Medicare, the health program for the elderly. He’s opposed
efforts to preserve tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

Residents of Becerra’s Los Angeles district make less money
and have less education than the average in California,
according to Bloomberg Government data. The biggest employment
areas for the district, which is 70 percent Hispanic, are
finance, retail and wholesale.

Clyburn, another Democratic leader, has also made a point
of the need to preserve spending for the elderly and poor.

“Throughout the deliberations on this debt crisis, my
bottom line has been to protect Social Security, Medicare and
Medicaid,” he said in prepared remarks in July.

All three senators named by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have said revenue increases should be part of a debt plan.
Republican leaders reject that, saying the group should look
only at spending cuts.

Three of the appointees who served on a fiscal commission
that Obama set up last year -- Baucus, Camp and Hensarling --
voted against that panel’s bipartisan plan to rewrite the tax
code and trim entitlement benefits.

“I’m discouraged,” said Bill Hoagland, a budget adviser
to Republican congressional leaders from 1982 to 2007. “This is
going to be an uphill battle to find a majority out of this
group.”

Bixby and Hoagland identified Portman, of Ohio, who served
as budget director for President George W. Bush, as a potential
dealmaker willing to work across the political aisle.